What would be a good 4-hour development task for a job interview?

Looking for career advice, esp. in the transport/industrial sector

• I've spent the last seven years as (practically, if not in title) a well compensated secretary in a consulting company in the transportation/industrial sector. Attempts to move our company or my own work in a direction where I can grow have met with "That's too complicated", and two years of reaching out to contacts has essentially yielded "Man, I'd really love to have you, but don't have a position" ... how do I move on to a place that does/makes/moves things? Let me add a quick caveat - I realize that I'm in a good position right now ... but I also believe it is extremely tenuous and want to be somewhat proactive in moving on. I'm under thirty, make a six figures, and work in a field I love in a relatively cheap city in the USA. Awesome. I have a pretty good reputation locally as as intelligent, curious, and able to figure things out on a practical level, the result of 7 years work in what's essentially a consultant's role under a particularly well respected figure in my field. It's a small chamber of commerce/lobbyist firm, and basically, we get prestige research projects by riding my boss's reputation. While my title is Senior Director, day-to-day, I, along with my colleagues (technically subordinates, but my boss delegates directly, and that gets into a bit of office disfunction that's a different AskMe), spend most of my time proofing every single one of the boss's emails, letters, powerpoints, phone call messages, etc. We are actively discouraged from researching our field, training of any sort, or seeking new projects (Boss: "I had to do training all the time in my past life, it's just people telling you what you already know, most things people don't really know what they're doing anyway, so if you make it up with a good title, you're fine."). Our organizational projects are almost all politically driven, so we rarely have the ability to do in depth analysis of an issue. Usually it's a case of: "X wants a report on Y" "Okay, honest estimate: three week research period, a few days to write up, call it a month" "Want it by the end of the week, they want conclusion Z, figure out a way to justify it using internet research." Adding to the difficulty, my boss is a pretty heavy micromanager so projects/research/development on the down-low don't really occur - that is, we routinely have weekly three/four hour staff meetings where each of the fifteen of us sits around the table and goes through every task for the week... which are all then addressed at the micro level and followed up upon religiously throughout the week. S/he's told me that the logic is that any of us could quit or get hit by a bus at any time, and everyone needs to be able to perform every task we're doing as an organization without skipping a beat. I've reached the ceiling at my position (I'm the number two at the organization, and when my boss leaves in the next two/three years, the board will (and needs to) hire someone with 30 years of operational (regulatory or military) experience). I came here basically from college, and my job description started as "I want a junior officer, I'll give you all the shit that my name's on, see how far you can run with it", so other than a bachelors and grad degree with give me a bit of credibility, I've no experience in the industry. I've brought this up, and my boss has told me "No no, don't be so pessimistic - you're learning to be an executive, you know more about this industry than any of our customers. I mean, you're right, this company needs a Name after me, but one of our customers will realize how good you are and hire you for their leadership team". Any question of improving myself, training/qualls, or growing has been met with something to the effect of "Don't be down on yourself, nobody's really an expert at anything, hell, people think I'm an expert, and you do all my crap..." The (verbatim, from my performance review) argument is that I effectively run the company. Almost every policy decision, answer to a research question, public project, and politicking strategy has come down to the boss walking into my office and asking "So... what do we do on this?" ... but that's not something I know how to advertise (or really think I can without it coming back on either me or the company). I've spent about two years looking to move on. I've pulled on contacts and gotten a handful of interviews and pair of job offers, but for 20-30% of what I'm making now, which would have been a pretty huge swack to both pay and quality of life. (both offers would have added nearly 30 minutes to my commute one-way, and probably 2 hours to the workday - moving to somewhere in-town is not an option to my wife's job which requires her somewhat close... long-term we both want to go to Europe and have the legal working rights to do so, but she's pretty adamant about not moving jobs if we stay in town). I understand my next move may require a pay cut, but I'm looking to avoid the proverbial pay multi-limb amputation. I've sat in interviews and been basically told (and in one case, quite refreshingly directly), "So ... you seem like someone who we'd love to have, but you don't actually fit a specific role." I've also been called by a board member after a different interview and told "Man, I want you for my company ... but we don't have a slot for you, and I'm not going to offer you a role where you'd be both way above the work, and way underpaid, because I'd just lose you too quickly." My training, degrees, and work experience that I've gotten here mean that I can put together a bit of a resume focused on process improvement, but when it's drilled into, I've not gone to sea, I'm not a former regulator, and I'm not in an operational role where I'd be able to hit the ground running somewhere else. I don't want to work as a lobbyist for the rest of my life, I want to get into a company that actually does/makes/moves things... how the hell do I get started? Even the management "experience" that I have is a charade due to the size/op pattern of the organization. So. A bunch of special-snowflake details from me, but thank you for reading all this way. Any ideas from the hive mind?

• Answer:

  You make a ton of money, and pretty much run the company. Get a title change, and keep working there.